This invention relates to voice communications and, in particular, to providing voice communications between two parties using computer controlled telephony hardware which is outside the Public Switched Telephone Network.
The importance of effective communication tools for use by business in advertising, product support, promotion and sales has long been recognized. Much inventive ingenuity has been invested in the development of tools for facilitating and improving business communications. A prime example is modern toll free calling services, commonly referred to as 800 calling services, which were enabled by an invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,860 to Weber. 800 calling services have since been vastly improved and made increasingly available as a business tool. In particular, sophisticated call centers have been developed to permit persons generally described as agents to field calls from the public for the purposes of disseminating information, supporting products and selling products.
In recent years, the Internet has also become an important and increasingly accepted tool for disseminating business information and promoting products as well as providing support to business customers. Use of the Internet and, in particular, the Worldwide Web has become pervasive in the industrialized world. Consequently, the importance of the Worldwide Web as a business communications tool has been recognized. While its importance is recognized, the electronic information provided by many companies on the Worldwide Web is static and designed to appeal to the widest audience. It is therefore neither adequate nor designed to respond to the specific needs of individuals. In order to obtain the breadth of information most individuals require, it is generally necessary to call the business and verbally request specific information. This process is inefficient because the caller must explain to the business contact what information was viewed, as well as what further particulars are required. This inefficiency has been recognized as a drawback for some time. Consequently, facilities have been developed to permit individuals browsing the Worldwide Web to place voice calls from Web pages. Such facilities are commonly called xe2x80x9cvoice buttonsxe2x80x9d. One such facility is described, for example, in applicant""s co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/652,659 filed on May 28, 1996 and entitled METHODS AND APPARATUS FOR ORIGINATING VOICE CALLS. That application describes methods and apparatus for originating voice calls between voice terminals using a data terminal and a data service node without requiring interaction with human attendants or interactive voice response systems to complete the call. In accordance with the method, an apparatus connected with a data network is used to send commands to a PSTN switching node to initiate a call between the voice terminals to permit the person browsing the Web to readily communicate with the business which owns the Web page, assuming that the user has a voice terminal available for accepting the call.
Other apparatus have also been developed, for example, Lucent Technologies(copyright) have developed methods and apparatus for integrating Worldwide Web pages and 800 call centers to permit browsers of a Worldwide Web page to launch a Voice over IP or a voice terminal connection to an 800 call center while providing an agent at the call center receiving the call with a data terminal screen xe2x80x9cpopxe2x80x9d of the same page the browser is observing. The agent is therefore visually attuned to the browser""s position and enabled to quickly and efficiently answer questions or close transactions.
While such facilities greatly enhance a business"" ability to respond to public need, they do not provide a viable solution for all businesses or provide a full range of potential services that can be developed through the inventive use of computer telephony integration. It is widely recognized that in the information age, small business is the driving force of the economy. While telecommunications service providers have recognized the need of small business to have access to such communications services as 800 call service and have lowered entry barriers to such services, 800 service is not necessarily well adapted to meet the needs of small business. This is particularly true where a small business derives most or all of its clientele from a local area. In that case, 800 service is of substantially no value. Even if a small business"" clientele extends well beyond a local calling area, because of the inherent limitations in current 800 service offerings, many small businesses find it uneconomical or impractical to subscribe to an 800 service for a variety of reasons, including the general inflexibility of 800 call terminations which substantially require at least one full time person dedicated to servicing 800 inquiries.
Consequently, there is a recognized need for a more flexible yet cost effective method of providing voice services to medium and small sized businesses and, in particular, to providing voice services to medium and small sized businesses having a presence on the Worldwide Web.
It is an object of the invention to provide a method and apparatus to permit voice communications, between a consumer browsing the Internet and a business having an interactive information page on the Internet, independent of whether the user is within a toll free calling area of the business.
It is a further object to the invention to provide an apparatus and method to permit voice communications between the consumer and the business which is particularly adapted to serve small and medium sized businesses.
It is yet a further object to the invention to provide a method and apparatus for voice communications between the consumer and the business which employs a rule base to adapt the service to the resources of the business in order to permit maximum flexibility and ensure optimum service.
It is a further object to the invention to provide an apparatus and method adapted to offer call center functionality without call center infrastructure.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide an apparatus and method adapted to permit the rapid development of new call handling features for business subscribers having a presence on the Internet.
These and other objects are realized in a method of providing voice communications between two parties using computer controlled telephony hardware which is separate from the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), at least one of the parties having access to a data network, comprising:
originating a first voice connection from the computer controlled telephony hardware in response to a call request received from the data network;
originating a second voice connection from the computer controlled telephony hardware in response to the call request received from the data network; and
bridging together the first and second voice connections at the computer controlled telephony hardware to permit voice communications between the two parties.
In accordance with a further aspect of the invention there is provided a method of providing voice communication between a service subscriber and a user of a data network accessing an interactive information page available on the network using a data terminal, the information page including a voice communication request button relating to the service subscriber, comprising the steps of:
a) accepting a voice communication request from the user;
b) analyzing the voice communication request or a preference file stored on the user""s data terminal to determine a voice connection medium preferred by the user;
c) consulting a rule base using a code that identifies the subscriber to locate at least one rule which determines how a voice connection is to be established with the subscriber;
d) operating computer telephony hardware to place a first call to the user by the preferred voice connection medium;
e) operating the computer telephony hardware to place a second call to the subscriber in accordance with the at least one rule located in the rule base;
f) operating the computer telephony hardware to bridge the first and second calls;
g) monitoring the data network for an indication that a modification of a configuration of the voice communication is desired by either the user or the subscriber and changing the configuration of the voice communication if an indication for change is received; and
h) monitoring the first and second calls and disconnecting the other of the first and second calls when either of the first or second calls is disconnected.
In yet a further aspect to the invention, there is provided a system for providing voice communication between a service subscriber and a user of a data network accessing an interactive information page available on the network using a data terminal, comprising in combination:
at least one computing machine programmed with the functionality of:
a) a voice button server for accepting voice communication requests either directly or indirectly from a user accessing an interactive information page on a data network;
b) an operations, management and maintenance server to permit the establishment and maintenance of rule bases and related controls; and
c) a computer telephony server for controlling computer telephony hardware;
a voice over data network gateway for converting voice data packets to voice telephony format; and
computer telephony hardware which may be controlled by the computer telephony server to initiate voice connections on a switched telephone network or a voice gateway to a data network, to bridge calls and to respond to a set of predefined voice connection control commands which may originate from either the service subscriber or the user.
The invention therefore provides a method and apparatus for permitting a user browsing a data network such as the Worldwide Web (WWW) or the Internet to establish voice communications with a service subscriber associated with an interactive information page of the data network. The interactive information page includes a xe2x80x9cvoice buttonxe2x80x9d which may be activated by the user to initiate voice communications to obtain more detailed information about the items being advertised. The user may select a preferred medium for the voice communication. If the user connects to the data network with his phone line, the user is likely to prefer a xe2x80x9cVoice over IPxe2x80x9d connection with the service subscriber. If the user has a data line as well as a phone line, the user will likely prefer a voice terminal connection over the phone line due to the superior sound quality. When a first time user activates the voice button, a data message is sent directly or indirectly from the user""s terminal to a voice button server which determines from the message the identity of the service subscriber and the user""s preferred voice connection medium. For repeat users, the preferred call medium may be looked up using a preference file stored on the user""s data terminal. Such preference files are commonly called xe2x80x9ccookiesxe2x80x9d. The voice button server also examines a rule base to determine how the service provider wishes his leg of the call to be established. All call initiation and bridging is effected from computer telephony hardware comprising a switch fabric and a switch controller which permits ultimate flexibility with respect to the establishment, bridging, transfer and other call operations. The computer telephony hardware is the originating point for each leg of a voice connection. When a user requests voice communications, at least two calls are placed. A first call over the preferred medium (phone or Voice over IP) to the user and a second call to an agent for the service subscriber. Once both calls are established they are bridged by the computer telephony hardware to provide the voice communication
Independent control of each leg of the call provides flexibility unrealized in prior art systems designed to enable voice communications between a browser of a data network and a service subscriber having a Web site on the data network. In addition, since only standard Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) functionality or standard Voice over IP functionality is used in call completion, no knowledge, control or adaptation of those protocols or procedures is required to construct, install or operate the system in accordance with the invention. Furthermore, there are no compatibility issues with the PSTN respecting deployment of the method or apparatus in accordance with the invention.
The method and apparatus in accordance with the invention are particularly adapted to provide efficient and flexible service from small to mid-sized businesses and to provide call center functionality without call center infrastructure. A rule base is used to permit the service to be configured to the specific needs of each service subscriber. Flexible features such as xe2x80x9csimultaneous notification groupsxe2x80x9d (SNGs), xe2x80x9cagent locatorxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cautomated page returnxe2x80x9d are just three examples of the flexibility enabled. In SNGs, two or more calls are launched simultaneously to different telephone numbers or IP addresses and the call which is answered first is bridged to the user requesting voice communications. With xe2x80x9cagent locatorxe2x80x9d, a plurality of calls may be launched simultaneously to different numbers or IP addresses for the same individual or different locations where the individual may be expected to be at any given time. A call is selected when an answering party enters a code identifying that party to be the agent sought. With xe2x80x9cautomated page returnxe2x80x9d a subscriber is paged using an identification number for a call being held. When the paged subscriber calls in and enters the identification number he is automatically bridged to the held calling party.
The apparatus in accordance with the invention preferably includes a voice button server, a voice over IP gateway, an operations, administration and maintenance server, and a computer telephony server which operates computer telephony hardware. Each server may be a separately programmed computing machine or the functionality of several servers may be configured in a single machine. The apparatus in accordance with the invention is particularly adapted for use by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to permit the ISPs to offer their business subscribers a flexible service for business advertising, promotion, support and sales. The rule base permits each business to adapt the service to its own needs. It also permits the business to control call permissions and determine call completion patterns.